Question: How many Miles per gallon on loaded train

[Anonymous]

<P>If I have 100 flat cars each loaded with a 100,000 lb load.</P>
<P>distance about 355 miles, Brisol VA to Haggerstown MD.</P>
<P>How much fuel would be used?</P>
<P>How long would it take an 'express' no-stop train to make the oneway trip?</P>
<P>Are there efficiencies of scale that would make a 200 car train cheaper per flat car?</P>
<P>Thanks,</P>
<P>Mort</P>

[timz]

How much fuel would be used?

How long would it take an 'express' no-stop train to make the oneway trip?

Problem is, a 1% upgrade maybe quintuples the fuel per mile, and apparently nobody has a good enough idea of the grades on that line to figure how much upgrade there is. So we could guess, but not well.

Figuring the time would be a fair amount of work too, even if you had specified how many units the train had. You'd have to consider all the (many) curve restrictions, if you wanted to be halfway exact. But an educated guess at the time would be easier to come up with than an equally-valid guess at the fuel burn.

[NeO6874]

I'm not sure about fuel efficiency (or lack thereof)...

But if you ignore the "realities" of rail travel (speed restrictions, delays, etc) you merely need to apply the average speed of said express train.  IE if it runs ~ 60 mph, 355 miles would take 6 hours.

[rrinker]

 More like gallons per mile with that kid of a load, but it's STILL less than would be used by the trucks required to carry 100 50-ton loads. I don't recall seeing published figures for the fuel efficiency of locomotives, but you can bet the operating department of the railroad knows the numbers.

                                             --Randy

[selector]

Many moons ago, I trained in old British Centurion tanks that weighed 50 tons.  They had Rolls Royce Meteor V-12 engines detuned to produce about 560 shp.

Gas mileage?   Five gals/mile @ 20 mph.  I imagine the typical 18-wheeler with 20 tons aboard will get something like 5 mpg.  Remember that these are diesels, so their efficiency is somewhat better.

A diesel locomotive hauling 1000 tons would be getting about  3-5 gals/mile as a non-educated guess, depending on grade.